Tina Belcher
Tina Ruth Belcher is a primary protagonist of Bob's Burgers. She is the oldest daughter of Bob Belcher and Linda Belcher and the older sister of Gene Belcher and Louise Belcher. She is a hopeless romantic person with a powerful sex drive and minimal social skills. In Crawl Space, she likes horses, rainbows, butts, zombies, writing erotic fiction and movies. She attends Wagstaff School with her siblings. Profile Appearance Just like the rest of the Belcher Family, Tina has tan skin, black hair that is styled in a bob style with uneven bangs across the front that has a yellow barrette on the right side, except when she operates as her alter ego (Food Truckin') and brown eyes. Like Linda Belcher, Tina's eyesight is impaired and she wears glasses to correct the problem. Her usual attire is a light blue t-shirt, a navy blue skirt, white tube socks with a red stripe and black high-top sneakers that resemble Chuck Taylor All-Stars. In more formal situations, Tina wears a purple dress and black shoes. She sleeps in a light purple top with grey bottoms and occasionally slippers. She is 5'5. Her winter attire usually is simply a purple sweatshirt and scarf over her usual blue skirt, but in "Dr. Yap", when they are skiing, she wears a magenta coat and ski pants. When out at night in "The Land Ship", while playing Cupid in "The Gene and Courtney Show", and while at horse camp in "The Horse Rider-er", she wears long blue pants instead of her skirt. Personality Tina's personality is a quirky "every-girl" transitioning from childhood to adolescence. The child in her still clings onto her love for horses, rainbows, and zombies while her inner teenager calls her to fantasize about zombies making out (which she claims is caused by seeing "Night of the Living Dead" at too young an age), and writing her feelings/activities in her diary. She also writes erotic fiction about her friends, acquaintances, and other people's works, and constantly thinks about her primary crush, Jimmy Pesto, Jr.. She develops fleeting crushes anyone she deems cute - including an entire baseball team of twenty-five, for example. A defining aspect of Tina's personality is her intense, precocious interest in sex and relationships. However, this is shown to be an innocent, age-appropriate interest. The extent of her precociousness is being a boy crazy teen with a love of butts. Tina's undoubted boy-craziness is a plot element in many episodes, often getting her into zany situations chasing unrequited or even oblivious crushes. The issue is addressed directly in Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now, wherein at first Tina denies being boy-crazy, she eventually accepts it as nothing to be ashamed of. Tina is very well intention, but socially awkward. When voting who would serve a customer they thought was a child molester in "Human Flesh," Bob says they shouldn't let Tina serve him because she is bad with customers. Louise says that it isn't her fault because she's autistic, but Bob quickly says Tina isn't autistic. She displays poor social skills like prolonged groaning when under pressure, hiding under tables, naivety, muted emotional expression, speaking in a monotone, and taking things too literally. Also, Tina doesn't express emotions very clearly. Even when times are rough and she's under tremendous amounts of (often self-induced) pressure, her voice is always flat and without inflection. Even her groans sound disinterested. Tina has a strong conscience and sense of right and wrong. She believes in following rules and is conscious of how her actions affect others. When she crashes a car and helps Bob lie to an insurance company and then accidentally burns down a man's house in "Tinarannosaurus Wrecks", she is consumed with guilt until she convinces Bob to tell the truth. Despite this, Tina is shown to have moments of extreme selfishness, often the result of getting swept up in something. Prioritizing her wants at the expense at of others feelings, and will even display a cognitive dissonance when her selfish behavior is pointed out to her. However, she is at heart a good person who eventually recognizes her bad behavior and makes amends. Tina sometimes displays quite a bit of confidence and self-worth, and often learns lessons about self-esteem during the family's adventures. For example, she initially conforms to the peer-pressure of shaving her legs, but regrets it when she reflects on how she did it for the wrong reasons. As she is discussing self-confidence with her dad, she says that she believed that she was beautiful and became so and that he should do the same. She considers herself to be a "smart, strong, sensual woman" and embraces her transition into adulthood. Despite having trouble with Math in "Can't Buy Me Math", Tina is shown as a good student and a "Star Hall Monitor" ("Midday Run"). She loves to write, often in her diary, and has written so much fan-fiction that she now writes "erotic friend-fiction", which stars her friends, and erotic holiday stories. According to Louise in "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?", Tina is "better on the page." Story Season 1 Tina is featured in every episode of season one. She is the center of her own story first in "Sexy Dance Fighting" in which she argues with Bob over growing up and working in the restaurant. In "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?," she wants an expensive, romantic 13th birthday party that Bob must work very hard to fund. The general themes of these two episodes, like many throughout the entire series, focus on Tina growing into a teenager and the joys and pains that come with it. Season 2 In season 2 Tina lies to vegetarians, lusts after her dentist, saves Louise from dying in a crumbling pit, and goes to extreme lengths to get out of gym class. She is the titular character of the episode "Bad Tina" in which she meets recurring frienemy Tammy and is blackmailed into breaking rules. The episode shows Tina struggle with her desire to be popular and her conscience, and also introduced the idea of Tina writing "erotic friend fiction", which she quickly became known for. Tina meets her first non-Jimmy Jr. romantic interest of the show, Nathan, in the season 2 finale, Beefsquatch. Nathan becomes Tina's boyfriend in order to get closer to famous TV hostess Pam, ultimately going so far as to dress up as Tina and assaulting the celebrity. Season 3 Tina plays a more prominent role in season 3. She is seen delivering blueberries that are really drugs, saving kids from pranksters on Halloween, sympathizing with a mechanical shark, hitting on a masseur, judging Gene's girlfriend with Louise, becoming too competitive at a game show, and getting addicted to coffee. In "Topsy", Tina is almost electrocuted while helping Louise with a school project. Tina is the main character of "Tinarannosaurus Wrecks", wherein she accidentally wrecks the car and worries that she's a "jinx." The episode is one of the first to establish Tina as a moral compass in the family, showing how uncomfortable she is with lying. More to this effect, Tina starts her own school news show to "uncover the truth" behind mysterious school vandalism in "Broadcast Wagstaff School News", only to be framed for the crimes she is investigating. Once she proves her innocence, Tina ends the episode with her own show on the official school network, The Tina Table, which has not been mentioned since. "Lindapendent Woman" features Tina searching all over to find a romantic missed-connection with only a bandaid to go off of. When she meets him at last, they kiss and exchange phone numbers. Josh then reappears in a love triangle between Tina and Jimmy Jr. in "Two for Tina". Tina enjoys and encourages the two boys to fight over her in the episode, which climaxes in a dance-off. Ultimately Tina loses both by proposing that they share, which the boys decline. In one of the last episodes of the season, we are introduced to Tina's favorite band, Boyz 4 Now. She attends a concert with Louise and afterwards the two sneak onto the band's tour bus, where Tina hides in a dirty laundry basket and steals 5 sweatbands. In the episode, also named "Boyz 4 Now", Tina calmly walks Louise through her embarrassing first crush. Another episode introduces her future romantic interest Henry, and as his buddy for a field trip she learns to accept herself for being a dork (Carpe Museum). Season 4 Bob's Burgers received its first Primetime Emmy Award in 2014 for the Tina-centric Season 4 episode "Mazel Tina". In the episode, Tina learns about becoming a woman when she takes on the job of Tammy's Bat Mitzvah coordinator at the last minute. Tina's desire to grow up is demonstrated again in the Thanksgiving episode "Turkey in a Can", when she is determined to prove she is mature enough to sit at the adults table by wearing panty hoes and watching the news. The stunt doesn't work, and instead the family focuses on Bob's sleepwalking, which wreaks havoc on the family's Thanksgiving. Tina's relationship with her father is again tested in "Bob and Deliver". In the episode, Tina hopes that Bob being substitute teacher means that she will be teacher's pet, but she is soon overlooked for star pupil Zeke. Hurt, she transfers out of the class. When Bob realizes he has neglected his daughter, he apologizes, promising that she is already his "favorite eldest daughter". Tina's romance with Jimmy Junior heats up when in "Presto Tina-o" she is his magician's assistant (before going solo and seeking revenge) and Louise helps her score a date with him at the Spinnaker Hotel only to bulldoze all over it by claiming to be Tina's "Translator". Despite Louise inserting herself through the whole date, Tina and Jimmy junior share a kiss at the end of the romantic evening. Another romance for Tina one-time interest Jonas, an older teenager who Tina gets in trouble trying to impress him in "Uncle Teddy". In this episode, Tina sneaks out and lies, things that she rarely does unless motivated by boys (or blackmail)(or Louise). Tina finds more romance when she tells her story in "The Frond Files", when she uses her feminine wiles to seduce an entire zombie basketball team out of eating her friends and into being her boyfriends. Season 5 In season 5 Tina and Louise experience more direct conflict than before in episodes such as "Speakeasy Rider," where the two face off in gokarting, "The Millie-churian Candidate," where Louise takes over Tina's role as Jimmy Jr.'s student body president campaign manager, and "Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting," where Tina is forced to chase Louise's class pet, Princess Little Piddles, all over town. In "Tina Tailor Soldier Spy," Louise goes on to insert herself into Tina's Thundergirls mission, making things worse. The two reconcile when Tina gives Louise a friendship bracelet and Louise promises she will "wear it forever, back off." despite claiming to "not be a jewelry person." The two also share a friendly competition over who can make the best Christmas gift for Bob in "Father of the Bob." Despite the tumult, the two are just as close as they always have been. Tina continues to pine after Jimmy Jr. in "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl," taking the role of Katherine Parker to his Jack Trainer in Courtney Wheeler's Working Girl Musical to try and get closer to the dancer. Although she begins the season's Valentine's Day episode "Can't Buy Me Math" with plans to win Jimmy Jr. over, her plan backfires and she falls instead for Darryl. Though the relationship is usually portrayed as mostly in Tina's head, Jimmy Jr.'s tendency to get jealous can be seen when Tina begins to date the coolest boy- er, box- in school, Jeff in "Tina and the Real Ghost." In the story Tina wrote for Gayle in "The Gayle Tales", called "Lady Chatterteeth's Lover" stars Gayle as a shy seamstress in the Georgian era, and ends with her marrying Scott Bakula in a double wedding with Tina and Jimmy Junior. With help from Linda, Tina aces a book report on a book she never even read in "Li'l Hard Dad," and with help from her siblings Tina uses her position as hall monitor to prove Zeke innocent and prove to Mr. Frond that people are good in "Midday Run." It is revealed in "Eat, Spray, Linda" that Tina goes with her mother on secret bathroom trips to The Royal Oyster Hotel, and even knows the staff by name. Season 6 Tina begins season 6 by questioning the origin of her very existence in "Sliding Bobs". She believes that fate brought Bob and Linda together but begins to panic at the thought that maybe it's all just random after all. She finally decides that fate is real, just really random. In "The Land Ship" we are introduced to Tina's one-episode boyfriend Jordan Cagan, who Tina does graffiti with at night. When they paint all over the sail of the Landship itself, however, Tina's conscience gets the best of her. Tina is back to crushing on Jimmy Jr. in "The Gene & Courtney Show," and panics when she doesn't have a valentine from him, destroying all her classmate's cards. Feeling guilty, Tina turns to Linda and Louise to help her fix her mistake. Tina learns to follow her heart in season 6, riding her beloved imaginary horse Jericho at her camp riding exhibition in "The Horse Rider-er" and standing up for what she believed when she was given the role of lead female soloist for her puberty positive performance group in "The Hormone-iums." Relationships Relatives Bob Belcher Tina seems to take her more reserved and cautious nature from her father, Bob. The two seem to be close, often opening up to one another in confidence about feelings or problems. Though Bob is often shown as resistant to Tina growing up (Sexy Dance Fighting, Turkey in a Can), especially in regards to what she calls her "budding sexuality", he is an accepting and supportive father to his oldest daughter. Bob seems to admire Tina's sense of right and wrong and is shown throughout the series to give her advice to follow her conscience. Linda Belcher Linda is an at times over-enthusiastically supportive parent to Tina. Like her husband, she expresses sadness that Tina is growing into a teenager, and the two conflict over this issue throughout the course of the series for a number of reasons, including Tina breaking the rules and Linda trying to insert herself. Despite these spats, the two generally are close and enjoy spending time together and bonding over "womanly" activities like shaving Tina's legs in Mother Daughter Laser Razor or going on a girl's trip in The Grand Mama-pest Hotel. Gene Belcher Gene is two years younger than his sister Tina, but the two get along well and spend most of their time together with Louise, both in and out of school. Gene is rarely invited to hang out with Tina and her older friends, but usually tags along with Louise anyway, which doesn't seem to bother Tina. Louise Belcher Although older than her sister Louise by 4 years, Tina and Louise spend most of their time together with Gene, even eating lunch together at school. Like Gene, Louise often accompanies Tina to events with her friends despite being much younger. Tina is shown to easily swayed and manipulated by Louise, and almost always follows along with her adventures and schemes. This dynamic has extended to hurt Tina in episodes like Tina Tailor Soldier Spy and Bye Bye Boo Boo. When Louise gets carried away, Tina is portrayed as the voice of reason/ conscience that reigns her little sister in and teaches her lessons about growing up. Love Interests Jimmy Pesto Jr. Despite being the son of Bob's Arch Rival, Jimmy Jr. is Tina's long time crush beginning in Season 1 Episode 6, "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?", and lasting throughout the entire series so far. In every episode with Jimmy Jr. it's shown that Tina has intense romantic feelings for him. He, on the other hand, seems to waver on his feeling for her. In some episodes he returns her affections (Ex MachTina, Bob Actually), but others he seems more interested in dancing, his best friend Zeke, or even other girls (Ain't Miss Debatin', V for Valentine-detta). Tina dedicates much of her erotic friendfiction in Bad Tina to Jimmy Junior. According to her, she has logged over 125 fantasy days with him and "You don't just throw that away!" Nathan In "Beefsquatch", Nathan and Tina meet on the set of reality TV show "Get On Up" with Pam and Chuck Charles. Nathan asks Tina to be his girlfriend so he could get closer to Pam, but takes it too far when he impersonates Tina to sneak into Pam's dressing room. Tina ends the relationship when she discovers him, telling Linda: "No, we couldn't make it work." Brett Tina meets Brett in the restaurant after he mistakenly believes Tammy is different like him in “Sleeping with the Frenemy”. Brett begins to like Tammy, not knowing that Tina is actually the one feeding her lines, and Tina realizes she had caught feelings for him. At the end of the episode, Tina reveals to Brett that he was talking to her all along and they kiss. Josh Tina meets Josh in the dairy fridge at Fresh Feed during Linda's brief employment in "Lindapendent Woman", and although she can't see his face through all the milk, she is immediately smitten. He leaves before she can get his name, and Tina is left with only his bandaid. She uses the bandaid to search for him like cinderella, ultimately reuniting and sharing a kiss in the dairy fridge at Fresh Feed. In "Two for Tina", Tina runs into Josh on the street. He is a ballerina and invites Tina to a dance at his school. In the episode, he competes with Jimmy Jr. for Tina to be his date, going to great lengths to win her favor. Tina decides to be Josh's date, but at the dance Josh faces Jimmy Jr. for the final time in a "dance-off" for Tina. After Tina tries to convince both boys to date her, Josh declines but tells her to let him know if she ever "becomes a one-boy girl". Jonas In "Uncle Teddy", Tina falls for Jonas, the dreamy new delivery boy at Reggie's Deli who drives a scooter and plays the melodica. Tina spends the episode trying to impress the older boy, who is obviously using her for free cheeseburgers. Ultimately, he abandons her to get arrested on the beach. When Jonas reappears in "Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting", he is not a romantic interest for Tina. When she asks him if he remembers her he says "oh hey its you... girl..." to which she responds that she is glad he remembers her. Jeff Jeff the imaginary ghost is the title character of Halloween episode "Tina and the Real Ghost". Convinced that Jeff is real, Tina brings him to school in an "Easy Breezy" shoe box, where he gains popularity and Tina later declares that he is her boyfriend. Jealous of Tina's popular non-boyfriend, Tammy steals the box and fakes a breakup letter to Tina. Tina is devastated until she learns that Jeff is not real. Due to the fact that he is not real, little more is known about Jeff other than that he has "girly handwriting because he's sensitive". Jordan Cagan Jordan Cagan appears for the first and only time in The Land Ship. In the episode, Tina discovers that despite being boring, Jordan is behind a rash of cool graffiti around Wagstaff School and the surrounding area. Determined to disprove everybody around her calling her boring herself, Tina begins sneaking out with Jordan at night to help him tag. The two share an accompanying secret romance before they break up at the end of the episode, after which Jordan is seen leaving with another girl. Jordan is notably a bad kisser. Joe Harrison Joe Harrison is a boy with whom Tina makes eye contact with in "Large Brother, Where Fart Thou?." After learning that he's in detention after their first meet she sabotages Mr. Frond's reading week display in order to be detained with him. Throughout the episode, Tina attempts to get him to make eye contact with her again, eventually he does. Though Tina has many elaborate fantasies about their love throughout the episode, he never gives any indication of any feeling for her whatsoever. Henry Haber In "Ain't Miss Debatin'" Tina joins the Debate club and during debate Henry is attracted to her due to her debating skills. Afterwards, they have a debate on whether they should date, Con being Henry and Pro being Tina, Tina wins and the two go on a date. Tina explains that though he is not her type, he is logically perfect boyfriend material, and they start dating. During finals she begins to have a crush on an opposing debater, Duncan. After battling with emotions and logic Tina kisses Duncan, then breaks up with Henry in the middle of their big debate due to her not being able to fall in love with him. Duncan Duncan is a member of the debate team from Kingshead Island Middle School, which opposed Tina's in "Ain't Miss Debatin'". Upon seeing Duncan for the first time, Tina immediately has a crush on him. Fellow Kingshead debater Sasha Whiteman notices this, and attempts to use Duncan to distract Tina before the debate. Tina tries to resist, as she is dating Henry at the time, but eventually gives in and kisses Duncan while on the beach, later blaming the fact that boys with long necks and thick accents or speech impediments are her weakness. Duncan seems confused and nonplussed but the sudden attention for Tina, and says later "I like kissing. I'm always keen for a kiss." When Duncan reappears as Sasha's sidekick in "What About Blob?", Tina is still crushing on him. This time, his exposed ankles are the focus of her attention, and she spends their time together trying to touch them. Darryl In "Can't Buy Me Math", Tina and Darryl enter as 'Cupid's Couple' at the Valentine's dance so Darryl can get near his crush Rosa Batista. The plan works but Tina is later shown to have genuine feelings for Darryl after their staged breakup. She finally drops the bombshell about their staged romance to Rosa and she leaves him but they later make up over the video game, Moats. Though Darryl is a frequent recurring character, he and Tina have not shown any signs of Romantic interest after the episode. Damon While on the street, Tina literally runs into Damon, a singer/dancer on his way to the Boyz 4 Now audition in the beginning of the season 9 premier, Just One of the Boyz 4 Now for Now. Though they barely speak before Damon has to hurry off, Tina is sure that they are meant to be together. Determined to find him, Tina goes on a long and wacky adventure. Once she finally finds Damon, Tina instantly falls for his best friend Hayden too, and has an imagination sequence in which the three are on a space shuttle and the boys rap battle in their underwear over her. Neither character has appeared again. Bruce The Goose Discouraged by not being asked to the prom by Jimmy Jr., Tina flees to the nearby park, where she develops a fast bond with local goose Bruce. Worried about the odd friendship, the Belchers (as they often do) resort to reading Tina's diary for insight, where she fantasizes that they have human-goose hybrid babies. It's not until a friendship bracelet she made for Bruce puts him in danger that Tina realizes that their love can never be. Bruce quickly rebounds with a goose from his pond at the end of the episode. Quotes Gallery ''Archer'' Version Trivia * Tina's height is 5'5". * In the early production days of Bob's Burgers, Tina was originally a boy named Daniel, named after Dan Mintz. Later on, however, the staff felt like it wouldn't work, so they changed the sex of the character and gave the character a new name: Tina (though Mintz could still voice Tina as the producers thought that it could pass as an awkward teenage puberty voice). *Tina is a member of Thundergirls troop 119 (Tina Tailor Soldier Spy). *Unlike many siblings on TV (both animated and Live Action) the Belcher children are shown to get along very well, they are almost always, and are often shown to be each other's go-to playmates and confidants. *Tina was originally 12 at the beginning of the series, she celebrates her 13th birthday in "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?". *Tina is in eighth grade as revealed in "Adventures in Chinchilla-Sitting". *Tine's size 8½ feet. (God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins) *In Bad Tina and The Frond Files, Tina is left-handed as can be seen writing erotic friend fiction with her left hand and playing a left-handed guitar. *Tina used to be a thumbsucker (Ambergris) and it is implied throughout the series that she wore braces. *Tina writes everything in her diary, which is often read by Louise and Gene. Linda also skims it to make sure Tina's not on drugs. (Sheesh! Cab, Bob?). *Tina's middle name is Ruth (Presto Tina-o). *Tina participated in the ice bucket challenge to raise money for ALS research. She nominated Paul Rudd, Chris Harrison and Scott Van Slyke from the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team because she says, "all of whom would look good in a wet t-shirt." Paul Rudd later voiced Jericho, her imaginary horse friend in "The Horse Rider-er". *Wears a retainer (The Cook, The Steve, The Gayle, & Her Lover). *Dislikes parrots after her experience with one saying "Nerd alert!" in a flashback cutaway in "Moody Foodie". *Tina is 13 and still believes in Santa (Christmas in the Car) *Tina is a member of the Hormone-iums vocal group. *Tina is the secretary of a Boyz4Now fan club run by Krissy Davis (Bye Bye Boo Boo). Though, she was kicked out for helping Louise with her Boo Crew, she later rejoined.http://www.mobypicture.com/user/derriman/view/19101244 *Tina's favorite flowers are Gardenias (Can't Buy Me Math) *Tina claims to have a "Photographic butt memory" (Wharf Horse) *In "Crawl Space", Tina states that Bob let her watch Night of the Living Dead when was eight years old, and a running gag has Tina thrashing in her sleep due to her strange dreams of zombies and kissing. She believes her sub-conscience and her budding sexuality are the main cause. *She has a body pillow named Jeffrey, mentioned in "Food Truckin'". *She used to chew on the sofa when she was a baby (Sacred Couch). *Linda chewed her food for Tina when she had her tonsils removed. *She owns cats pajamas (Slumber Party) *Her toy Equestranauts doll Chariot (To whom she considers herself mother, caretaker, friend, and rolemodel) was bought by Bob the night before her fifth birthday after he and Linda realized they didn't have anything for her. *According to Bob, Tina has the thickest head of hair in the family (Tinarannosaurus Wrecks) *In Boyz 4 Now, Tina's favorite boy is Griffin. *Hasn't had a new pair of glasses since she was six years old. (The Bleakening). References External Links *Tina Belcher in Heroes Wiki de:Tina Belcher Category:Females Category:Main Characters Category:Girls Category:Wagstaff Students Category:Belcher Family Category:Characters Category:Characters introduced in Season 1 Category:Thundergirls Category:Episode Title Characters Category:Females with a Male Voice